Sunday, April 28, 2013

The risen Christ whom we proclaim is Lord of all things has the only authority over the scope of God's salvation, and claims that the Triune God’s plan is to make all things new in him. Our job is to love the world as Christ, and proclaim this Good News to all.Pr. Joseph G. Crippen, Fifth Sunday of Easter C; texts: Acts 11:1-18; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35

Sisters and brothers, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

The post-Easter followers of Jesus were continually confronted with changing realities, with experiences that profoundly shifted their world-view, their faith, the foundation of their lives. Realities such as the fact that the beloved Master whom they saw killed was now alive. Experiences which taught that things they believed to be true about God and the world were in fact not true, such as, the power to kill someone isn’t really as strong as they thought. And they were repeatedly forced to recognize that they still had a lot to learn about the love of God revealed in the risen Jesus, a lot to learn about what God’s intentions for them and for the world were.

An example of this is our story from Acts today. It’s the story of Peter defending his decision to eat with non-Jews, Gentiles, and in fact to welcome them into the church through baptism. The event actually happens in chapter 10. Today’s story from chapter 11 is Peter re-telling what happened and why to the leaders of the church in Jerusalem.

Peter describes yet another earth-shaking, faith-changing reality they all now had to face: God intends the kingdom, the rule of the risen Christ, to extend beyond the boundaries of the Jewish faith.

This is a massive shift of thinking: never had they contemplated this was the goal.

The record of Scripture suggests that whatever the disciples believed about Jesus it always assumed and lived in the reality that he was Jewish. Even the religious leaders who had him executed likely didn’t consider the possibility that his mission was to the whole world.

That’s kind of understandable. The Messiah was a Jewish concept, a promise to God’s chosen people. Jesus was a Jewish teacher, with Jewish disciples. He was killed because the leaders thought he was blaspheming the God of the Jews. The one true God, but still, the God of the Jews.

But had they read their Scriptures more carefully they might have noticed something. The Jews were God’s chosen people for a reason, a purpose: to be a blessing to the nations, to the whole world. It’s central to God’s original covenant with Abraham in Genesis, repeated several times.

And in Isaiah it’s stated clearly in chapter 49, in one of the servant songs, where the prophet speaks the word of the LORD regarding the work Messiah will do: “It is too light a thing,” says the LORD, “that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” (49:6)

So from the beginning it was in God’s plan to bring light to the whole world in Jesus. But no one really seemed to be thinking much about that, not Jesus’ opponents, not even his followers.

I suppose it’s natural. Human beings love being part of “in” groups. We want to be the insiders, the special ones, and to do that we need to know who the outsiders are, the ones who aren’t us. It’s how we ever justify war, or oppression, how we know we’re part of a good group, by claiming that “they” are a “they,” not an “us.” But God’s plan in Jesus was to end “we” and “they” permanently. That’s what Peter needed to learn. And then teach to the rest of the Church.

This is God’s new reality (or at least a reality of God’s plan that is new to us) which we also need to be prepared to face.

The most profound part of this story is actually not the vision Peter has, but what the Holy Spirit does, and Peter’s deeply wise recognition of his own limitation.

Peter saw the Holy Spirit become present in the lives of ones he thought were outside God’s salvation. He saw that the Gentiles received precisely the same gift of the Spirit he and the other believers received from Christ. And he wisely realized it wasn’t his decision to make anymore about who got that gift. Who am I, Peter said, that I could hinder God?

This is the wisdom we need to find. In the Revelation to John, the part we heard today, the risen Christ, the One sitting on the throne, says “See, I am making all things new.” (21:5) All things are made new in Christ Jesus, all things. And, like Peter, we need to understand what that means.

The risen Jesus has brought this hope to the world: all peoples are in God’s love and care, all things, all people, all creation, will be made new. After the resurrection, there are no “in” groups, no “out” groups. No sense that Christians are the only ones inside God’s love because they know the truth. All of God’s people are welcome, even if they don’t know what God has done in Jesus for the world.

And if God chooses to bless and to offer life to the whole world, who are we to hinder God? When we understand this, we begin to see this truth in many places, and other questions occur to us.

What if Jesus was right in John 3:16 and 17, that God loved the whole world, the cosmos, the universe, enough to send the Son to save it, not to judge it?

What if Jesus was serious when he called Paul to become God’s messenger to the Gentiles, to non-Jews?

What if Jesus meant it when he said he intended to draw the whole world to himself in his death and resurrection?

Of course we’d be foolish not to believe Jesus and take him seriously. But that’s just what we do. We treat the Church as if it’s an exclusive club, and as if we get to make the rules about who’s in and out. We treat those who do not believe in the lordship of Jesus as if they were lesser people, not worthy of God’s love. Or if we’re feeling benevolent, we worry that those who do not believe are condemned to eternal torment after they die. And we treat those with whom we disagree about issues of faith as people unworthy of our attention and love and respect, let alone God’s.

But it’s actually quite simple: we proclaim that the risen Christ is Lord of all things, and has drawn all creation into the life of the Triune God by his death and resurrection for all.

If that’s so, then perhaps we might actually want to reflect that we believe that to be true.

This is the point where Christians start asking with concern, “Are you talking about universalism? To that we can only say, it’s not about labeling, or anything anyone else might or might not define as universalism.

If God the Father so loved the whole cosmos that he sent the Son, through whose death and resurrection, as the New Testament writers persistently affirm, the entire universe is subject to his rule, then the entire universe is subject to his rule. And then all Jesus’ words about the limitless love of the Father, about the fact that the will of God is that all are found, all are saved, not judged, all these words also apply and are valid.

A cosmic view of the Lordship of Christ Jesus demands that we, at least, cannot put limits on his ability to love and save all whom he wishes. And frankly, it doesn’t really matter what we call it, or whether or not we believe it. God will do what God will do, and saying “who am I that I could hinder God” is not magnanimously saying, “We need to let God be God.”

It’s actually saying we don’t have any power to alter God’s plan anyway. I’m sorry if this is news to anyone here, but we don’t get to vote on the shape and scope of God’s plan of salvation. Which is probably a good thing for a large part of the world. So it would be wise for us to get on board with what the Triune God actually says is the plan.

Of course, we don’t know precisely how Christ is going to do this, make all things new, draw all people to himself. We don’t know how he’ll bring in people of other faiths, or people of no faith. But we believe he will, that he intends to.

And I think that what Jesus says to us today is that it’s not our job to figure out how he’s going to do this, to come up with some theological plan that explains how it will work. Paul tried doing that for three chapters in his letter to the Romans and ended up tied up in knots, sure of only one thing: God will save the Jewish people because God promised Abraham. Paul never could figure out exactly how it would happen, though.

And that’s OK. Because that’s not our job. Our job, according to Jesus today, is simple: Love each other and the world as he loved us. When we do this we’ll be a sign to the world that we follow Jesus. When we do this, we will let the world know about Jesus’ love. And we’ll be a part of Jesus’ plan.

When we understand what the risen Christ actually wants us and needs us to do, we then have a chance to begin doing what we’ve been anointed to do.

When we spend our time trying to set rules for who’s in and who’s out, we miss God’s deep and abiding insistence that all are in. When we live as if we believe evangelism is getting others to agree with us we miss our call to do the only evangelism – good news telling – we need to do, and that is to love as Jesus loved us. And when we spend all our energy trying to sort out just how Christ will make all things new, all people new, and draw all people in, we waste energy needed to be loving people in the world, signs of God’s love for all.

And that’s our call. To see the world, and other people, as God sees them, not as we’ve been used to seeing them. And to love the world, and other people, as God loves them, not as we think they deserve. We mostly can’t figure out how God is going to accomplish this, and we don’t need to. (Which should be a big relief.) All we need to do is obey, and love, and watch God’s plan unfold.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

A new commandment, a whole new direction and a new Jerusalem, all of which came about because of the Resurrection of Our Lord.

In the book Field of Compassion, author Judy Cannato puts forth her scholarly insight about God’s love. She writes, “God creates in order to give God’s self away in love. All that creation has ever been invited to do is accept this gift of love.” She writes that all love comes from God, that we cannot love until we are loved and by this love we love others because, we are nothing more than conduits of divine love.

The depth of God’s divine love became flesh in Jesus. In the Gospel for the Fifth Sunday in Easter, Jesus gives his apostles a new commandment. He says, “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” God’s love triumphs in Christ’s resurrection, and his followers are commanded to continue to bring the triumphant love of Jesus into the world.

In the First Reading for Sunday, the apostle Peter brings a broader understanding of God’s love to the Jews in Jerusalem who criticized him for going to the uncircumcised with the message of the resurrection and the grace of God. However, Peter’s vision of God’s inclusiveness wins them over and sends the early church in a whole new direction. The followers of Jesus would thereafter preach God’s grace and love through the life, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior to all.

In the Second Reading, John gives us a vision of what is to come because of the resurrection of Jesus who is “making all things new.” Jesus will return from heaven to a new earth in a new Jerusalem in all her splendor. “Death will be no more.” Jesus is the beginning and the end. He came as the enfleshed expression of God’s eternal love and completes his journey in the New Jerusalem.

Postponed twice due to bad weather, the third Thursday Bible study series of this year will finally begin this Thursday, April 25, and will run for five more weeks on Thursday evenings. Meeting in the Chapel Lounge from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Pr. Crippen will be leading a study of the book of Hebrews, an early Christian sermon preserved in the New Testament. As usual, there will be a light supper when we begin. All are welcome to this study opportunity!

The Ascension of Our LordThursday, May 9, 2013Holy Eucharist at 7:00 p.m.

Semi-annual Congregation Meeting to be Held This Sunday, April 28

The Vestry has announced the date of the April semi-annual congregation meeting to be Sunday, Apr. 28, after the second liturgy. Among the items on the agenda will be election of officers and directors, whose terms will begin on July 1. Any wishing to suggest names to the nominating committee for the positions of president, vice-president, secretary, and directors of congregational life, evangelism, or neighborhood ministries are encouraged to contact Adam Krueger, congregational president.

Also on the agenda are several constitutional and bylaw amendments presented to the congregation by the Vestry, attached to this Olive Branch as a separate document. The first page, the constitutional amendments, is a second hearing of amendments presented and approved at the October semi-annual meeting. Should these be approved again, with at least a 2/3 majority of those present and voting, they will be formally ratified. The second pages are bylaw amendments which only need the one hearing and vote at this meeting. Included in these amendments are bylaws establishing a business and finance committee, directed by the treasurer, and some corrective edits to several directors’ bylaws.

Book Discussion Group

Mount Olive’s Book Discussion group meets on the second Saturday of each month at 10:00 a.m. at church. For the May 11 meeting, they will discuss Children of God, by Mary Doria Russell, which is the sequel to her book The Sparrow. And for the June 8 meeting, they will discuss The Calligrapher's Daughter, by Eugenia Kim.

New Members to Be Received on Day of Pentecost, May 19

If you are interested in becoming a member of Mount Olive this spring, please contact Pastor Crippen (pastor@mountolivechurch.org), or Andrew Andersen, Director of Evangelism (andrewstpaul@gmail.com)

May Day, May Day!

Far from being an emergency, this is a call for you to enjoy watching the May Day Parade. We would like to have a large number of folks from Mount Olive to watch the parade as a group, making our presence in the community known in this way. The plan is to leave from Mount Olive after the Congregation Visioning Meeting (lunch will be served there) on Sunday, May 5, either walking or by car, to view the parade together from between 31st and 33rd on Bloomington Ave. Rides may be arranged for those who need them. If you have a Mount Olive shirt, or other item with the Mount Olive logo, please be sure to wear it. You may also want to bring a lawn chair. Let’s have a good turnout for a fun time, taking part in a neighborhood activity.

Prayer Shawl Retreat to be Held April 27

This Saturday, April 27, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, Mount Olive’s Prayer Shawl group will join the group from Our Savior's Lutheran Church for a joint Prayer Shawl Retreat at Our Saviour’s (2315 Chicago Ave. S.).

This retreat is for anyone interested in needle arts, prayer and the neighborhood. It will be a day of prayerful work, fellowship, and reflecting on the neighborhood community of our churches. There is no cost for this retreat and participants are welcome to join us for all or part of the day.

The morning will include an opening prayer, sharing stories, and prayerful work. The afternoon will include a walking meditation and neighborhood experience, prayerful work, and closing prayer.
For a full agenda and additional information, please contact Cynthia Prosek, 612-860-7228, or by email to cynthprosek@msn.com.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Research has shown that in the womb, babies learn their mother’s (and father’s!) voice. Similarly, in our baptism and rebirth we learn to distinguish God’s voice from worldly voices because only the voice of God comforts, protects, and gives new life where the was none before.Vicar Neal Cannon, Fourth Sunday of Easter, year C; texts: Acts 9:36-43, Psalm 23, Revelation 7:9-17, John 10:22-30

Sisters and brothers, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

I love being an uncle. So far, I have one niece and nephew on Mary’s side of the family, and one nephew on my side, all under the age of six, and I gotta say being an uncle is one of the best jobs in the world. As an uncle, I often get invited over to give Mom and Dad a break awhile. And usually when I see my niece and nephew they’re really excited to see me and I’m excited to see them, because my role as uncle is to be the fun guy. I’m the guy that can be silly and goofy around them, I’m the guy that plays games with them, and I’m the guy that takes them to the zoo or to the movies.

But one thing that I’ve always noticed as an uncle is that whenever a niece or nephew gets hurt, whenever they bump their head or scrape their knee, it’s not Uncle Neal they come crying to. It’s almost always Mom’s voice, and sometimes Dad’s, that comforts them.

There’s actually a biological/scientific explanation for this. I recently read an article that cited a study by Canadian and Chinese researchers who recorded pregnant women reading a poem out loud, and then played the recordings to the babies in utero. The heart rate of babies who heard their mom’s voice speeded up, while the heart rate of those who heard the tapes of another mom’s voice slowed down. The research team thus concluded that children even from the womb know their mother’s voice.

One mother, reacting to this article, said, “I remember when my son was born, they put him in his little hospital bassinet by me and I called his name and talked to him. He turned his head and looked at me right away. This was just a couple of minutes after birth! Then they did his hearing test and told me his hearing was perfect. I was like, of course it’s perfect! I already knew that!” :) [1]

Think about that. As infants and even from the womb we know our mother’s voice and mothers know that their children can hear them. And this is why children seek out Mom’s voice. Mom’s voice comforts us, protects us, and it’s Mom’s voice that we recognize as the one that gives us life.

This is actually a common theme in the book of John. This is the theme of hearing Jesus’ voice and recognizing that his Voice, is the voice of our Creator. The first verse in John says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This is John’s way of telling us that Jesus is the voice of God. Jesus embodies the voice of God. And we recognize that voice, as the voice of our Creator, the one in the beginning, the one with us now, and the one who will be with us in the future.

John continues this theme in chapter 3 as Nicodemus approaches Jesus and says, “‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’”

The term ‘born from above’ is sometimes translated as ‘born again.’ Often, when people hear the term ‘born again’ we think of in-your-face evangelists, who ask you when you were ‘saved’ or ‘born again.’

But think about the term ‘born again’ in the context of a mother to her child. Like a child in the womb, being ‘born again’ is the place where we re-learn the voice of God. We re-learn that the voice comforts us. We re-learn that the voice protects us from danger. We re-learn that the voice sustains us and give us new life.

Jesus goes on to tell us that this rebirth happens with water and Spirit. In other words, in our baptism we’re given the gift of the Spirit, and through the Spirit we hear the voice of God. We need the Spirit to help us hear the voice of God because in our sin we’ve listened to countless other voices and forgotten what God’s voice sounds like.

In our Gospel lesson today, the people gathered around Jesus are essentially asking about this voice and wondering where it comes from. They say “Quit keeping us in suspense and tell us who you are!” Jesus essentially responds to them by saying, take a look at all of the things that I’ve been doing. Don’t you recognize them? The hungry are being fed, the weak are protected, and everywhere I go I create new life.

What does that voice sound like to you?

The people who were listening to Jesus should have known what that voice sounds like. The voice that comforts, protects, and gives life is the voice of God.

Jesus goes on to say that the reason they don’t believe that Jesus is God’s Son is because they’ve forgotten what God’s voice sounds like. “My sheep listen to my voice,” Jesus says. Put another way, my children recognize me when I speak.

But in truth, this isn’t really a problem that THEY have. This isn’t a problem that somebody else has. This is a problem that WE ALL struggle with. We all struggle to hear the voice of God because as Jesus says, we need to be born again to hear it because other voices have taken over.

As many of you know, I was a youth director for several years before I decided to go to seminary and become a pastor. It was a privilege for me to work with youth as they experienced extreme joy, but also as they experienced extreme hardships. Some of the hardships that several youth were going through were eating disorders and self-injury.

And I remember one youth in particular whose problems became serious enough that she needed to be hospitalized so she could receive counseling and treatment. One week I went to see her in the hospital and she was telling me about the program that she was in and some of the treatment/counseling methods that she was going through.

One method, she learned, was to give your issue a name. The name the doctors suggested was E.D. or Ed, which stands for eating disorder. The doctors had the patients do this because they found that giving their problems a name helped people recognize that their self-destructive thoughts and feelings were coming from a source outside of themselves.

I learned two things from this. The first is that we are constantly listening to other voices that come from outside of us that shape what we believe and think.

Sometimes it’s the voice of a friend.
Sometimes it’s the voice of magazines and television.
Sometimes it’s the voice of culture.

Sometimes those voices tell us that we’re not good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, or worthy enough to be loved unconditionally by our Creator… or in fact, by anyone. And these voices in our lives shape our thoughts and beliefs about ourselves.

The second thing that I learned is that it’s crucial for us to listen to and follow the voices in our lives that build us up. Lesser voices tear us down, and attack us, and suck the life out of us. God’s voice does the opposite of those things.

The Bible tells us that the Creator’s voice, comforts us, protects us, and gives us life and anything that is not that, is not our Creator’s voice. That’s how we recognize if something is really from God or not. We ask the question, does this give us life, or does it take life away?

And that’s how we know that God is in this story in Acts today, even though God or Jesus is never mentioned. In this story, a woman named Tabitha who is deeply loved by the community falls ill and dies suddenly. So they rush to get Peter, and Peter prays over Tabitha and the story tells us that she is given new life; she is miraculously raised from the dead.

As Christians, we proclaim that God is in this story, because only God can give new life where there was none. And so we claim it was not Peter’s prayer that gives new life to Tabitha, it’s God’s word, it’s God’s voice. This is incredibly important for us as Christians to believe because this tells us that God’s voice makes impossible things possible. It creates life where there was none before.

And as Christians we say that because this voice has the power to raise the dead to life, God’s voice also has the power to heal entire communities. God’s voice has the power to heal us and comfort us in time of need because if God’s voice can give life to the dead, then God’s voice can accomplish ANYTHING. And not only do we receive healing and comfort and life from this voice, but when we hear it, we are able to heal and comfort others in their time of need.

One organization that helps young girls with self-injury, eating disorders, and other issues is called “To Write Love on Her Arms”. I want to share with you this organization’s vision.

The vision is that we actually believe these things:
You were created to love and be loved.
You were meant to live life in relationship with other people, to know and be known.
You need to know your story is important, and you’re part of a bigger story.
You need to know your life matters.

What does that voice sound like to you?

As Christians, we say that God’s voice, that Jesus’ voice, creates love where there was none before and that voice accompanies us wherever we go. That even in the midst of tragedy and our darkest hours, we can trust in the words of Psalm 23, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

In this, we learn that God joins us in our suffering. We learn that when we are going through difficult times, it’s not that God is absent; it’s actually that God is walking right alongside us in the valley of the shadow of death, and even though we can’t see God in the darkness, we can always hear God’s voice. Sometimes God’s voice comes through an encouraging friend; sometimes we hear that voice in scripture, prayer, and in church, sometimes through an organization like “To Write Love on Her Arms”.

And when we hear God’s voice beside us, we proclaim the words from Revelation today as well which read, “for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” And when we hear God’s voice in the pit of our lives, when we learn that God’s voice is good.

So today, here in worship, let us quiet our hearts and listen to the voice of God who even now is seeking to comfort us, protect us, and lead us out of the valley, and into new life.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

This coming Sunday (April 21) is the Fourth Sunday of Easter, also known as “Good Shepherd Sunday.” The imagery of a shepherd caring for the flock is a relatively easy one to grasp – even though most of us have no connection with a herd of sheep or the one who cares for them. Most parish musicians, instead of hunting for a setting of Psalm 23 get to choose which setting to sing because there are so many options, whether for choir as an anthem or for congregation.

Psalm 23 is probably the one of the few Psalms most people know from memory. Indeed, it’s a good one to know – it includes words of comfort for times of trouble, it’s reassurance that we are indeed cared for and loved, and that God will provide and protect. I’ve heard of many instances where it is recited at the hour of death.

Psalm 23 also gives me occasion to think of the power of memory. Memory is a powerful force, not to be tinkered with willy-nilly. We don’t know when our mental abilities might falter – but when something is internalized through our memory banks, it will still be there when we need it. That’s one of the reasons, by the way, that our practice most of the time is for the entire assembly to sing the verses of the Psalm in our liturgies – putting the words of these prayers on our lips, in our souls, and not only singing at the refrain, or antiphon, which is a more common practice. As one friend said about that: “If the only thing the congregation sings is the antiphon, when they get to their death beds, that’s all they are going to know.”

It’s also why we don’t mess around with a variety of translations. There are many out there – especially for Psalm 23. Some of them are even quite good, and some challenging in interesting ways. But if we keep changing the translation we use, our getting it committed it to memory is hampered. If a different translation is adopted, we need to commit to it over time to allow memory to do its work – so we have to be careful about which one is adopted. The switch from King James to the Book of Common Prayer we use today was a dramatic shift – but probably one that is here to stay. For that reason it’s important to switch and stick with it. (“Thou preparest a table…” versus “You prepare a table…”)

Thinking about the importance of memory also points out the value of memorizing more than Psalm 23 – while we can. Psalm 121, for example. “I lift my eyes to the hills…” would be a good one. The same goes for hymns. The more we memorize, the better. Adding melody to the text puts it deeper into the memory with different levels of connections in the brain – and studies have actually proven that hymns connect with Alzheimer patients – where mere words would not.

How well do you know Psalm 23? Try it right now – how far can you get?

- Cantor David Cherwien

The Ascension of Our LordThursday, May 9, 2013Holy Eucharist at 7:00 p.m.

If you are interested in becoming a member of Mount Olive this spring, please contact Pastor Crippen (pastor@mountolivechurch.org), or Andrew Andersen, Director of Evangelism (andrewstpaul@gmail.com)

Hebrews Study on Thursday Evenings

The third Thursday Bible study series of this year will begin tomorrow evening, April 18, and will run for five more weeks on Thursday evenings. Meeting in the Chapel Lounge from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Pr. Crippen will be leading a study of the book of Hebrews, an early Christian sermon preserved in the New Testament. As usual, there will be a light supper when we begin. If anyone wishes to provide the first meal, please let Pr. Crippen know. All are welcome to this study opportunity!

Semi-annual Congregation Meeting to be Held Sunday, April 28

The Vestry has announced the date of the April semi-annual congregation meeting to be Sunday, Apr. 28, after the second liturgy. Among the items on the agenda will be election of officers and directors, whose terms will begin on July 1. Any wishing to suggest names to the nominating committee for the positions of president, vice-president, secretary, and directors of congregational life, evangelism, or neighborhood ministries are encouraged to contact Adam Krueger, congregational president.

Also on the agenda are several constitutional and bylaw amendments presented to the congregation by the Vestry, attached to this Olive Branch as a separate document. The first page, the constitutional amendments, is a second hearing of amendments presented and approved at the October semi-annual meeting. Should these be approved again, with at least a 2/3 majority of those present and voting, they will be formally ratified. The second pages are bylaw amendments which only need the one hearing and vote at this meeting. Included in these amendments are bylaws establishing a business and finance committee, directed by the treasurer, and some corrective edits to several directors’ bylaws.

Night on the Street

This Friday night, April 19, Peter Crippen and Eric Manuel and their mothers, along with members of Trust Youth group and more than 400 other teens from thirty Twin Cities congregations, have committed to spend the night in a church parking lot near downtown Minneapolis to learn about youth homelessness. Together they will learn what life is like for teens on the street.

•How do homeless teens make it from day to day?
•What resources are available to them?
•What can be done to help those who have no place to call home?

For that evening, they will stand in a soup line for dinner and spend the night sleeping outside in cardboard boxes.

They are doing this not only to increase awareness of youth homelessness, but also to raise money to help in efforts to end the problem. Participants have been asked to raise enough funds to provide one week’s worth of safe and supportive services for a homeless youth. That’s $140.00 for seven days!

If you are able to help meet that goal, please see Peter or Eric on Sunday morning, or drop off a check in the church office, payable to Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative, with "Night on the Street" in the memo line. All donations to A Night on the Street will go to Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative, a faith-based nonprofit housing organization. The event has corporate sponsors, so every dollar raised will go directly to serving the youth!

Contribution Statements

Contribution statements for the first quarter of 2013 (January-March) are printed and available for you to pick up at church. They are on a small table next to the coat room.

Many have not picked up their 2012 year end statements. They are in the office and can be mailed to you upon request.

May Day, May Day!

Far from being an emergency, this is a call for you to enjoy watching the May Day Parade. We would like to have a large number of folks from Mount Olive to watch the parade as a group, making our presence in the community known in this way. The plan is to leave from Mount Olive after the Congregation Visioning Meeting (lunch will be served there) on Sunday, May 5, either walking or by car, to view the parade together from between 31st and 33rd on Bloomington Ave. Rides may be arranged for those who need them. If you have a Mount Olive shirt, or other item with the Mount Olive logo, please be sure to wear it. You may also want to bring a lawn chair. Let’s have a good turnout for a fun time, taking part in a neighborhood activity.

Uptown Brass and NLC Gala: Why Choose One When You Can Do Both?

The Uptown Brass Quintet will appear in concert at Mount Olive this Sunday, April 21, 4:00 p.m. (not April 14, as originally planned!). These brass virtuosos are all members of the Minnesota Orchestra and will present an exciting concert of gorgeous brass sonorities featuring great music ranging from Bach to Piazolla.

Please also note that later that same afternoon the National Lutheran Choir is having their annual gala at the Earle Brown Heritage Center, just a little north of downtown Minneapolis. The National Lutheran Choir is directed by Cantor David Cherwien, and Pr. Crippen sings with the group, while Brenda Bartz serves on the board of directors. The NLC rehearses at Mount Olive each Tuesday, so they’re in a number of ways deeply rooted with Mount Olive. The gala begins at 4:00 p.m. with a social time and silent auction, but the dinner doesn’t actually begin until 6:00 p.m., so it’s possible for people to come to the concert at Mount Olive and then get to the gala later, and some Mount Olive people are already planning on doing both. Information on the event can be found at http://www.nlca.com/season/2012-2013/we-shall-have-song-gala .

Vision for the Future/Understanding Our Past

On April 7 we gathered for the first of three Congregational Visioning Events, this one focused on sharing and understanding Mount Olive’s history. The results suggest a few themes. Paramount — we worship, sing, pray and study together. Throughout the decades represented we reported that worship has gotten more liturgical or formal, more God centered. It expanded to involve more people, from weekly communion to more lay participation in worship leading roles—sacristan, lectors, acolytes and assisting ministers.

We are a congregation of action and involvement. We recognize a need, analyze the components, and seek solutions. We supported community health clinics, resettled refugees, provided books and tutoring, supported young mothers and families, lobbied, wrote letters or protested if necessary.

We are committed to seeking the truth, facing tough issues and talking together. We faced issues in the larger church, within our own faith community, and political issues of justice and equality. And we did that in respectful ways.

We are a congregation of celebration and joy. We love to eat and drink together. We share that love of with our neighborhood. We looked for and embraced occasions to celebrate, adding Easter Vigil, a second community meal, notable receptions following musical events.

That’s part of what our history tells us. What will we become? What more do we need to learn? Last Sunday Community Observer and Community Interviewer volunteers gathered for training. In the next month these folks—and others who many wish to join them—will set out to watch and listen. What do we need to learn from neighborhood (our 2 mile radius) as we move forward? On May 5 we will gather for our second Visioning Event where we will examine our values as a congregation. On June 2 our third Event will focus on strengths and action. Save the dates and be a part of the process.

Prayer Shawl Retreat to be Held April 27

On Saturday, April 27, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, Mount Olive’s Prayer Shawl group will join the group from Our Savior's Lutheran Church for a joint Prayer Shawl Retreat at Our Saviour’s (2315 Chicago Ave. S.).

This retreat is for anyone interested in needle arts, prayer and the neighborhood. It will be a day of prayerful work, fellowship, and reflecting on the neighborhood community of our churches. There is no cost for this retreat and participants are welcome to join us for all or part of the day.

The morning will include an Opening Prayer, sharing stories, and prayerful work. The afternoon will include a walking meditation and neighborhood experience, prayerful work, and Closing Prayer.
For a full agenda and additional information, please contact Cynthia Prosek, 612-860-7228, or by email to cynthprosek@msn.com

Book Discussion Group

Mount Olive’s Book Discussion group meets on the second Saturday of each month at 10:00 a.m. at church. For the May 11 meeting, they will discuss Children of God, by Mary Doria Russell, which is the sequel to her book The Sparrow. And for the June 8 meeting, they will discuss The Calligrapher's Daughter, by Eugenia Kim.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

We who are disciples, baptized into Christ, belong to Jesus’ Way, and that means who are, how we live shows ourselves to be part of that Way. Here is Jesus’ Way: taking broken sinners, forgiving them, and sending them out to find more.Pr. Joseph G. Crippen, Third Sunday of Easter C; texts: Acts 9:1-20; John 21:1-19

Sisters and brothers, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

That was a chilling opening to our first reading today: “Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord . . . .” Luke goes on to say that Saul took that hatred and obtained permission from the high priest to bind and bring to Jerusalem any whom he found in Damascus who “belonged to the Way,” men or women. Then if you look back to chapter 8 of Acts to see the other reference to Saul’s attitude and behavior, you find this in verse three: “Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house.” Paul himself, known to us much more by his Roman name than his Hebrew name, says this in the first chapter of Galatians: “I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it.” (Gal. 1:13) This Saul of Tarsus, this Roman citizen named Paul, was an angry, vengeful man, a religious zealot who was willing to do violence in order to punish those whom he felt were evil in the sight of God.

It’s hard to read such descriptors today and not think of angry young men going schools and malls with guns, entering room after room, eager to kill, or angry young men and women blowing themselves up on buses in the Middle East. Surely the images in so many videos the perpetrators will often make before they act can be summarized in these same words: “breathing threats and murder.” And likewise the actions when they do what they are planning could be described by those other words: “ravaging, by entering house after house.” In both our modern day and in this story of a young Saul, we find people who are acting in a way that only can be described as deranged, acting in hate and self-righteous, often religious arrogance, seeking the destruction of others.

Isn’t it stunning, then, that one of these young men became a powerful advocate of the Prince of Peace, a preacher of the unlimited and unmerited grace of God given to us in Jesus, and the clearest articulator after Jesus of the Lord’s message of self-giving love and a way of living in the grace-filled fruits of the Spirit, not in rage and hatred. Paul was completely transformed. In fact, the Way of Jesus made him into a new person, almost unrecognizable from who he used to be. Paul goes from murderously seeking those who belong to “the Way,” to joyfully and fearlessly inviting people all over the known world to join him in belonging to the Way themselves.

We need to understand why and how Jesus did this, and continues to do it. It won’t change the tragedies we continue to see in the news every day, not at first. But if we who claim to belong to the Way ourselves can understand what Jesus is doing and calling us to be in this Way, maybe we’ll begin to see and be a part of the new creation Jesus promises to make in the world.

To better understand what our Lord Jesus is doing, let’s back away a little from the picture of Paul’s story and look at it next to the Gospel story today.

There are remarkable parallels. In both stories, sinful people are forgiven by the risen Lord and offered life.

Peter and the other disciples failed miserably, and betrayed Jesus. But, alive again, Jesus offers them breakfast – a sign of his forgiveness – and fellowship again. They are welcomed back as friends, as beloved. And of course Paul, we’ve seen his sinfulness. It’s described in detail in today’s reading and before. But in this story there is also this remarkable call of Jesus. He looks at this awful persecutor and sees potential, gifts. Jesus sees an instrument to bring God’s love to the world.

And so in both stories, people who are forgiven by Jesus are sent out, are given a task.

Peter is told to live his love for Jesus by feeding Jesus’ flock, his lambs, those who need God’s love. Ananias is sent to bring the grace of Jesus to someone who has been persecuting Jesus. We’ll speak a little more about him in a moment. And Paul has a small job, too: all Jesus needs him to do is bring the whole Gentile world the Good News of God’s love in Jesus!

Think of who these two become, and what a marvel this is: there are not two more well-known or beloved leaders of the early Church. And yet today it is clear to us that they weren’t heroic figures at all, they weren’t people to admire. Peter and Paul were broken, sinful people who were transformed by the risen Jesus. It’s as simple as that.

A critically important part of the Way of Jesus, then, is this: it seems that sinful people are needed, are necessary, for the future of the Way. Jesus’ redemption projects are central to his Way for the world.

This is so important for us to understand, for two reasons. First, it gives us hope and promise: even though we know our own sinfulness before God, our Lord Christ looks at us and sees potential, sees gifts in us we can share, has need of us. But second, it also takes out the “me-only” aspect that Christian faith sometimes gets. “I believe so I know I’m forgiven, and that’s all I need to know.” We don’t have that option anymore, because we are forgiven so that we can go out and bring others into God’s love.

And that we learn from the crucial part of both these stories: what happens to the forgiven ones after they’re sent.

What’s interesting is that we don’t learn that from Peter and Paul today; we actually don’t see what they become. Not in our readings today at any rate. What we know so far as these readings go is that they both answer the call of Jesus. But at the point these stories stop, neither has done anything.

It turns out that today Ananias is our central character, the one we should pay attention to. Ananias, one who “belongs to the Way,” obeys his Lord, and is sent to become the love of his Lord. He acts toward Paul as Jesus would act, as Jesus asks him to act. It’s the only thing we know about him from Scripture, but today it’s enough: Christ sends Ananias to be Christ to an enemy.

And we also notice that he doesn’t want to. He knows who this monster is. He tells Jesus, “I’ve heard from many about this one, his evil, what his authority is.” He wants nothing to do with him.

Yet Jesus just says, “Go. Go, because he will be an instrument for me to bring my name to the world.” Ananias becomes Jesus’ intervention into Saul’s life, Jesus’ words of grace for Paul.

Imagine what it meant to Paul to have this leader of the Damascus church come and offer kindness and grace in Jesus’ name, knowing what he would have done to Ananias if Jesus hadn’t stepped in.

Imagine what it meant for Ananias to embody Christ, to act in the love of Christ even though he was terrified of this man, and probably disagreed with the Lord’s assessment of him.

But it is in the actions of the disciple that the love of the Master is known in the world. This is the heart of belonging to the Way. In the actions of the disciple, the heart of the Master is known. This is the center of Jesus’ hope for us.

In some ways this brings full circle some of the thoughts I’ve been working through in these past four weeks.

I didn’t quite know that would happen when we came up to Passion Sunday. That we’d end up considering more than once the problem of evil and terror in the world and our response to it. And what it means for us to faithfully follow our risen Lord with our lives. And even the reality of the transformation that happens to disciples of Jesus when met by the risen Lord and filled with the Spirit, something we’ve seen in each of the past three weeks including today.

But today, once again, the readings lead us to these questions and truths. And once again we are reminded that as followers of Jesus, people who belong to the Way, we, along with Jesus, reject using power or violence or force to effect even God’s will in the world.

We instead learn to live without fear of death – though death is real – because we know Jesus is alive, and all our lives are forever capable of being lived without fear.

And that leads us to Ananias and Peter, and eventually Paul, though it took him a little more time. It’s the difference between Ananias’ actions and Paul’s earlier behavior, the difference between vengefully defending our idea of God and reaching out to all in Christ’s love, even those who hate us.

This is the mystery of our baptism: we ourselves become anointed ones, literally Christs. We become and are Christ to each other. And to the world, sent to bring God’s love and grace into the world. Not with force or violence or power, but by living, embodying, like Ananias, Jesus’ self-giving, sacrificial love.

So Christ our Lord, risen from the dead, calls to us as he did to Ananias, to Paul, to Peter. He calls us to become Christ ourselves, to belong to his Way. And to live by that Way in all we do in our lives.

And this is why our Lord needs sinful people, seeks sinful people, to be a part of the Way. If the heart of the Master will be seen in the actions of the disciple, his disciples need to know that heart.

How better than to find broken, sinful, evil people and love them into life, forgive them into grace, embrace them into a new Way of being? Transformed by the forgiving love of the risen Christ, we are filled with the very thing we need to witness to such love in the world.

Here are the words you and I need to hear today from our Lord: “Feed my sheep.” and “Go.”

No more hedging, no more waiting, no more thinking it’s someone else’s job. God’s lambs – the people of this world – need feeding, need love, need grace. Even the ones we think are bad. Because the Lord has need of their love, too. It’s all part of the plan.

And yes, that’s frightening, to consider responding with love to hatred, responding with peace to violence, responding with justice to oppression. But like Ananias, Jesus is simply saying to us, Go. Do it. I will be with you. I will fill you with all the love you need. But go.

You’re the only ones, he says, you’re the only ones who know what it means to be so forgiven, so you are the only ones who can share that with others. So go.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Why do you look for the living among the dead? We heard Luke on Easter day tell us that the angels at Jesus’ tomb asked the women this question. The women had come to the tomb, expecting to finish the embalming of Jesus’ body. They came, not expecting life, but death. They came, not hoping to see him alive, but looking for a dead man. They came, filled with sorrow, almost lifeless themselves. Sometimes we forget that. We know the story of Easter so well. We come on Easter Sunday ready for joy and hope. Not so these women.

Then they heard the amazing, wonderful news that Jesus, their Master and friend, had defeated the power of death. And their lives were forever changed. No longer lifeless and afraid, they were filled with life and joy and courage. One could almost say that they, too, were raised from the dead that Sunday morning.

Why do you look for the living among the dead? This question is addressed to us, too. While we know that Jesus rose, we often live as if his resurrection only provides the promise of life after death for believers. That’s not wholly bad; to live without fear of eternal death is a good thing. But sometimes that means that in this life we can spend our lives looking for life, for the living, among the dead, that is, in this world. We look for life and hope and meaning in this world, on this side of the grave, in things that are dead.

Some turn to work, thinking that their work is what gives them true meaning in life. Others turn to entertainment, recreation, sports, to activities for themselves or their children, as participants or as spectators. And while these can be enjoyable, or can sometimes be necessary to maintain health, they do not give full life, abundant life. Still others, tragically, turn to drugs and alcohol to give them life, things that are clearly a place of death, not life.

What we need is life, joy, and purpose on this side of the grave. Abundant life. And it can only come from the One who made the grave a doorway into life instead of a wall at the end of life. The One who came that we might have life and have it abundantly. Life is often filled with pain, difficulty, grief, along with the joys. And none of the things of this world are fully capable of helping us handle that, or helping us survive and live.

But here, then, is the secret of Easter. We are filled with the life of God now, on this side of the grave. Filled with the life and love of the One who gave his life for us and rose from the dead. Gathered in a community of faithful disciples by the Risen One, that we might be life to each other and the world.

So why look for the living among the dead? The things of this world that claim to offer life all fail us. So we look for life in the place of the living: in our Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead and the source of life to fill our lives now, to raise us from lifelessness and sorrow, to give us joy and courage. Ultimately, then, we are called to share this good news with all who still look for the living among the dead. Christ is risen, indeed! God help us all find that life and then send us out in joy to share it with each other and the world.

April 14: “Exemplary Youth Ministry: How Churches are Shaping the Faith of Young People,” part 2 of a 2-part series, presented by Vicar Neal Cannon.

Hebrews Study on Thursday Evenings

The third Thursday Bible study series of this year will begin on April 18 and will run for five more weeks on Thursday evenings. Meeting in the Chapel Lounge from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Pr. Crippen will be leading a study of the book of Hebrews, an early Christian sermon preserved in the New Testament. As usual, there will be a light supper when we begin. If anyone wishes to provide the first meal, please let Pr. Crippen know. All are welcome to this study opportunity!

Semi-annual Congregation Meeting to be Held Sunday, April 28

The Vestry has announced the date of the April semi-annual congregation meeting to be Sunday, Apr. 28, after the second liturgy. Among the items on the agenda will be election of officers and directors, whose terms will begin on July 1. Any wishing to suggest names to the nominating committee for the positions of president, vice-president, secretary, and directors of congregational life, evangelism, or neighborhood ministries are encouraged to contact Adam Krueger, congregational president.

Also on the agenda are several constitutional and bylaw amendments presented to the congregation by the Vestry, attached to this Olive Branch as a separate document. The first page, the constitutional amendments, is a second hearing of amendments presented and approved at the October semi-annual meeting. Should these be approved again, with at least a 2/3 majority of those present and voting, they will be formally ratified. The second pages are bylaw amendments which only need the one hearing and vote at this meeting. Included in these amendments are bylaws establishing a business and finance committee, directed by the treasurer, and some corrective edits to several directors’ bylaws.

Meals on Wheels Thanks

Thanks to the following Mount Olive volunteers who delivered Meals on Wheels during the first quarter of 2013: Gary Flatgard, Art & Elaine Halbardier, Bob Lee, and Connie & Rod Olson.

Practicing Faith Together: A Day for All God’s Families

Join members of TRUST congregations for a morning of family fun and faith tomorrow, April 13, from 9:00 a.m. until noon, at Lutheran Church of Christ the Redeemer (5440 Penn Avenue S., Minneapolis), with an optional lunch and service activity to follow. TRUST is pleased to welcome Marilyn Sharpe as the speaker for this event. You may recognize Marilyn as the writer of the monthly “Positive Parenting” column in the Metro Lutheran.

The workshop is open to all members and friends of TRUST congregations, especially families, however you describe yourselves as family, and knowing that all of us are part of God’s family. Members of TRUST churches are also invited to attend!

Night on the Street

Next Friday night, April 19, Peter Crippen and Eric Manuel and their mothers, along with members of Trust Youth group and more than 400 other teens from thirty Twin Cities congregations, have committed to spend the night in a church parking lot near downtown Minneapolis to learn about youth homelessness. Together they will learn what life is like for teens on the street.

•How do homeless teens make it from day to day?
•What resources are available to them?
•What can be done to help those who have no place to call home?

For that evening, they will stand in a soup line for dinner and spend the night sleeping outside in cardboard boxes.

They are doing this not only to increase awareness of youth homelessness, but also to raise money to help in efforts to end the problem. Participants been asked to raise enough funds to provide one week’s worth of safe and supportive services for a homeless youth. That’s $140.00 for seven days!

If you are able to help us meet that goal, please see Peter or Eric on Sunday morning, or drop off a check in the church office, payable to Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative, with "Night on the Street" in the memo line. All donations to A Night on the Street will go to Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative, a faith-based nonprofit housing organization. The event has corporate sponsors, so every dollar we raise will go directly to serving the youth!

Contribution Statements

Contribution statements for the first quarter of 2013 (January-March) are printed and available for you to pick up at church. They are on a small table next to the coat room.

Many have not picked up their 2012 year end statements. They are in the office and can be mailed to you upon request.

New Members to Be Received on Sunday, May 19, Day of Pentecost

If you are interested in becoming a member of Mount Olive this spring, please contact Pastor Crippen (pastor@mountolivechurch.org), or Andrew Andersen, Director of Evangelism (andrewstpaul@gmail.com)

TRUST News

Here are some upcoming events sponsored by TRUST:

•Saturday, April 13, 7 pm, St. John Lutheran Church – The Caritas vocal ensemble will present a concert. Tickets are $15 ($10 for seniors), and a reception follows the concert.
•Saturday, May 11, 8 am-Noon, Bethlehem Lutheran Church – Annual Plant Sale. Order forms will be available so that you can select the perfect plants for your garden.
•Saturday, June 8, Lake Harriet – a walk to support the Parish Nurse Program. All walkers welcome!
•Did you know that TRUST has staff who conduct estate sales? The Trusty Salers conduct sales on weekends.

For information about these and all TRUST-sponsored activities, pick up a “Communicator” at church.

May Day, May Day!

Far from being an emergency, this is a call for you to enjoy watching the May Day Parade. We would like to have a large number of folks from Mount Olive to watch the parade as a group, making our presence in the community known in this way. The plan is to leave from Mount Olive after the Congregation Visioning Meeting (lunch will be served there) on Sunday, May 5, either walking or by car, to view the parade together from between 31st and 33rd on Bloomington Ave. Rides may be arranged for those who need them. If you have a Mount Olive shirt, or other item with the Mount Olive logo, please be sure to wear it. You may also want to bring a lawn chair. Let’s have a good turnout for a fun time, taking part in a neighborhood activity.

Uptown Brass and NLC Gala: Why Choose One When You Can Do Both?

The Uptown Brass Quintet will appear in concert at Mount Olive on April 21, 4:00 p.m. (not April 14, as originally planned!). These brass virtuosos are all members of the Minnesota Orchestra and will present an exciting concert of gorgeous brass sonorities featuring great music ranging from Bach to Piazolla.

Please also note that later that same afternoon the National Lutheran Choir is having their annual gala at the Earle Brown Heritage Center, just a little north of downtown Minneapolis. The National Lutheran Choir is directed by Cantor David Cherwien, and Pr. Crippen sings with the group, while Brenda Bartz serves on the board of directors. The NLC rehearses at Mount Olive each Tuesday, so they’re in a number of ways deeply rooted with Mount Olive. The gala begins at 4:00 p.m. with a social time and silent auction, but the dinner doesn’t actually begin until 6:00 p.m., so it’s possible for people to come to the concert at Mount Olive and then get to the gala later, and some Mount Olive people are already planning on doing both. Information on the event can be found at http://www.nlca.com/season/2012-2013/we-shall-have-song-gala .

Congregational Vision Team update

The creative work of re-modeling a home is crafting a new design out of what is there by looking at the whole house differently.

The Mount Olive Vision Team invites you to look and listen where God has put us in the neighborhood surrounding our church facility. We need your eyes and ears, your heart and prayers that we may be open to understand what God would have us do and be in our life together in this place.

During the next four weeks members of Mount Olive are invited to be Community Observers (to go out in groups of three) and Community Interviewers. Observers will determine a good time to get together to pray and go out onto the streets, into cafes & coffee shops, ride the bus, sit in a hospital lobby or social service center to listen and watch with ears, eyes, and heart. There will be devotions and questions to use as a guide each time you go out. Interviewers will meet with community leaders to hear their observations of the community and its hopes and needs. There will be a form to collect your impressions and comments which the vision team can use to inform our future direction.

This Sunday, April 14, after the second liturgy, there will be a one-hour training for both Community Observers and Community Interviewers. All are welcome. A light lunch will be served. If you cannot attend the training but still want to be involved in this part of the visioning, please let us know and the vision team will work with you. At the training you will select the locations that you/your group will visit. For the Community Observers, if you don't yet have a group of three partners by the training date, you can speak with others to form a group of three.

We are also looking for members to be part of the prayer team that will support all the vision activities. Contact Diana Hellerman or the church office to be part of this group.

Thank you,
Mount Olive Vision Team

Dining Out For Life

Thursday, April 25 is the 19th annual Dining Out for Life Event, a fundraiser for The Aliveness Project, a community center for individuals and their families living with HIV/AIDS. Funds raised through this annual event directly support their services and programs.

Dining out at participating restaurants is a great way to help with this worthy project, but this year they are also in need of over 500 Volunteer Ambassadors to serve at the participating restaurants. If you are interested in helping in this way, call the Aliveness Project at 612-822-7946, or visit them on the web at www.aliveness.org.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

When we meet the risen Christ, we are given peace and life and a relationship of love and life with the Triune God, which gives us peace and confidence to trust God’s authority in our lives and follow it, to act on our faith in the world. Pr. Joseph G. Crippen, Second Sunday of Easter C; texts: Acts 5:27-32; John 20:19-31

Sisters and brothers, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

This is a remarkable change. An amazing change. A surprising change. Pick the adjective you want, the apostles in Acts 5, our first reading, are very different from the ones of John 20, our Gospel. In John, they’re frightened, locked behind closed doors, fearful of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council who had condemned Jesus and urged his execution. In Acts, only a few months later, they find themselves under arrest for preaching about Jesus’ resurrection, and they stand before that very council of their own authorities and fearlessly refuse to stop their preaching. In effect, they challenge the council to do what it has to do, but they will not stop telling everyone they can about Jesus. They have no fear of earthly authority. They know who the true authority of their lives is, and they won’t back down.

It’s nothing short of miraculous, this transformation. From cowed, hiding followers to brave, fearless leaders in only a few short months, something happened to them which changed them. And the Bible says that what happened is they met Jesus alive, after they had seen him killed. And nothing was ever the same for them again.

All of which raises the question for us: do we share such faith? Do we have such confidence in the authority of God in our lives that we can be so fearless? Willing to face death rather than disobey God? Unafraid of anything anyone could do to us, and completely focused on our call to proclaim and serve the risen Lord?
Maybe we have to start with another question: do we even want such zeal?

Our living out of our faith can sometimes be a quiet one. And we can, at times, be fine with that.

In a pluralistic society it’s not really even a question anymore whether we’ll be challenged in court to defend our faith and our discipleship, our actions. And since we aren’t persecuted for our faith, arrested for our faith, we have the luxury of considering faith a completely private affair if we want.

In a tolerant America, about the only offensive faith action you can do in the eyes of many is try to convince your neighbor to believe what you believe. Groups which proselytize, which loudly proclaim what they believe in public, on the air, in the media, make a lot of the country uncomfortable. Perhaps including us.

In fact, given the rationale many terrorists give for their actions, that of obedience to the commands of God, and adherence to the dictums of their faith, many Americans, perhaps including us, find unquestioning obedience to God distasteful, if not downright dangerous.

Add to this the reality that some Christians in particular are trying to, as they put it, re-claim this country for Christianity, in effect re-writing our history to suggest the founders intended this to be a Christian nation, and trying to assert that we should be again.

So last week in North Carolina some legislators introduced a bill which would exempt North Carolina from the federal constitutional mandate that no law may be made respecting an establishment of religion. They wanted to make Christianity the state religion of North Carolina, and be exempt from federal laws prohibiting any such favoritism. The bill has since been removed from consideration. But I’m sure they believed they were acting according to the mandates of their faith. I’m sure they looked to Peter and the apostles today as their proper forebears.

So here’s the hard thing: if we disagree with the obedience terrorists claim to God, if we disagree with these legislators, then potentially this means we believe what the apostles are doing in Acts is unacceptable to us, inappropriate, perhaps dangerous.

And that puts us in a bit of an awkward spot, doesn’t it, given that we call ourselves disciples of the same risen Lord Jesus?

The witness of the early Church got the witnessers into trouble at many turns. They were considered rabble rousers, and many were executed for their preaching and teaching. They harmed the economies of towns and villages and cities by preaching against false gods which threatened the economic system that the worship of such gods generated. They harmed the quietness of the same places by preaching about this risen Jesus and inviting, exhorting, calling to people to leave all they believed and come to a new faith, a new life.

The last thing faith was to these early believers was private.

It seems there’s a gap between our expectation of how one should live out one’s faith in the public sphere and the expectation of the disciples of Jesus. And as soon as someone’s faith convictions lead them to involvement in politics, in urging the government to act, in speaking out for what they believe and trying to influence public policy, many of us get nervous.

As the events in North Carolina show, recently it has been right-wing Christians who want to inflict their views and beliefs on all of us. Many of us think that is wrong of them to do. But are we thereby shirking our call as disciples?

This actually is a familiar American difficulty with nuance and subtlety. We’re not very good at that. This is not a question, it turns out, of complete quietism and keeping one’s faith to oneself on the one hand and terrorism, Nazism, fascism, or American Christian theocracy on the other.

Somewhere in between those two convenient extremes which permit outrage without intelligence and criticism without discernment, somewhere in between lies this reality: to have faith in God at all means that God has a say in how we live our lives. That’s the truth. If we have faith in God, God has a say in how we live our lives.

And to live as a believer in God in a free society, where we are all expected to participate in governing ourselves, means that our faith will of necessity shape our politics, our votes, our public speech. Or there is no faith to speak of. Again, this is simply truth: if we believe, our faith will shape how we are.

It is not an integrated faith to be a believer in the risen Lord Jesus and keep that to oneself. It is not an integrated faith to be a believer in the risen Lord Jesus and not act on Jesus’ call to love God and love neighbor in a public way. Loving one’s neighbor inside the confines of one’s house and never stepping outside to help that neighbor is hardly love.

And once we step outside, once we act on the love of God that we know, we have become politically involved in some way. That’s just the way it is.

So the question remains: If we’re involved the moment we step outside, what will that look like?

This week we commemorate Dietrich Bonhoeffer on the 68th anniversary of his execution by the Nazis. He was a very important theologian and preacher among those who opposed Hitler. He was a pacifist and an ethicist, and his writings still inspire and teach today.

He also was involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler. What’s powerful to me about his involvement as I understand it is that he believed it was a great sin to do this. He had no illusions that somehow this was exempt from God’s law. But he also believed that doing this sin was the only right choice he had as a Christian. And as it turns out, he was arrested, among many others, after the plot failed, and was executed only weeks before the war with Germany ended.

Whether Bonhoeffer was right in doing a sin to try to save others is not the question for us today. The question for us is: can we even conceive of such a dilemma in our lives?

Can we even consider what it means to be so convicted by our faith that we act in a way we believe God desires us to act, even if it means others will not like us, others will be offended by us? I’m not envisioning we’ll be arrested. But it seems that even offending others can be a daunting fear for us sometimes.

What changes the question for us is what changed it for those first disciples: as these disciples found out, the risen Jesus comes through the locked doors of our fears and offers us peace. What happened to the disciples, the thing that changed them forever, has happened to us: we have seen the risen Jesus in our midst, he’s come through our defenses, and calms our fears.

There is a deep, abiding peace that Jesus offers his followers – not just the peace of knowing that he is risen and has defeated death, though that is the heart of our lives. But that peace leads to a deeper peace: knowing that if in fact Jesus is Lord of all, and has defeated death, we need not fear anything. And that means we have no reason not to follow Jesus’ call.

He comes through the locked doors of our lives and then invites us to open them and step outside ourselves. To be witnesses to his love and life for the whole world.

And that’s where we begin the conversation together. With questions like these:

• What does it mean to follow the Son of God who calls us to be peacemakers, who asks us to follow the prophets’ call to do justice and walk humbly with God?

• What does it mean in a pluralistic society to follow the Triune God’s authority and not human authority? How do we know what God wants, for that matter?

• How do we follow God’s authority as we understand it, and still have respect and tolerance for those who believe differently from us?

• What would it mean for us to take our faith out of the private sphere of our living rooms and act in the world as people who are filled with new life from God and a message of God’s love for all?

I don’t know what our answers will be to these questions, or others like them. I only know it’s vital that we ask them of each other.

It’s why congregations periodically take time to do what we’re beginning now, to have a process of visioning and discerning, to ask from time to time the question “what is God calling us to be and do now, in this place, in this time?”

It’s simply the only honest way to deal with the faith we claim to have. There has never been a time when the Bible told believers that the highest aspiration of their faith was to keep it to themselves and not bother anyone. Jesus has always done something after giving peace and hope and faith to his followers: he’s sent them out to change the world.

That might make us uncomfortable. That’s good. And we might not be ready to risk our lives for God, so it’s a good thing we probably won’t be asked to do that this week. But we could start by taking baby steps of faith. We could be a little more courageous and willing to talk with each other about how we live as faithful people in this world. Let’s not allow ourselves to imagine that suddenly, in our generation, God’s plan is that we stay home with our faith. Let’s walk through the door Jesus has opened for us.

Most of all, let’s rejoice in the peace our risen Jesus gives us and ask him to keep giving us this peace even as we begin to seek a deeper discipleship and obedience of faith.

Friday, April 5, 2013

We all live in a bubble – a small cozy little world that makes sense to us. In this bubble, we make definitions of people and things in order to make sense of the world as we see it. Poor people are poor because… Gay people are… Republicans believe… The truth is that most often we make presumptions from a distance, not able to see the truth until we actually experience it in person.

And I think that is what it is like for the disciples when they see Jesus for the first time. The disciples (and we, ourselves) have a preconceived notion of death, namely that it is permanent. So when Jesus shows up there is a lot of fear, shock, and puzzlement that is palpable in the room. “Peace be with you,” Jesus says.

Wait a second. Didn’t Jesus tell the disciples that he was going to die and be resurrected? How is this shocking to the group of people who were closest to Jesus?

Simply put, its one thing to hear about the resurrection, but it’s another thing to experience it in your own life. Think of it this way. By the time I was in college, I had seen the Taj Mahal on postcards, in textbooks, and in pictures of all kinds from all angles. To be honest, not having a keen eye for architecture, I never thought much of it. But when I traveled abroad to India, took the two hour train ride to Agra and saw it in person, it was an entirely different experience. The detail was astonishing. The grandeur was supreme. To be there was awe-inspiring and magnificent. Bubble popped. Similarly, I had heard about the poverty in India, but nothing compared to being overwhelmed by it in person.

The same thing must have been true for the disciples. They heard about the resurrection and they had inclinations of what it would be like. But nothing compared to being in the presence of resurrection. “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side,” says Jesus. Bubble popped.

This is a gift that Jesus gives us in our lives. He destroys our preconceived notions of the world by saying “Peace. Come and see for yourself.” And in this we have a faith that is not detached from reality, a faith that isn’t distant but close. So if a rich person complains that people are poor because they “are lazy,” then Jesus responds “Come and see.” When people say that gay couples don’t have relationships like straight couples, Jesus responds, “Come and see.” And when people say that a person can never be resurrected from the dead, Jesus responds, “Come and see.”

On April 15 I will begin working on the schedule for the 3rd quarter of 2013. Please submit any requests for the months of July, August and September 2013 to me no later than April 15, 2013.
You may contact me via e-mail at peggyrf70@gmail.com or by phone at 952-835-7132.
- Peggy Hoeft

This Sunday’s Adult Forum

April 7 & 14: “Exemplary Youth Ministry: How Churches are Shaping the Faith of Young People,” a 2-part series, presented by Vicar Neal Cannon.

Hebrews Study on Thursday Evenings to Begin April 11

The third Thursday Bible study series of this year begins on Thursday, April 11, and runs for six weeks. Meeting in the Chapel Lounge from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Pr. Crippen will be leading a study of the book of Hebrews, an early Christian sermon preserved in the New Testament. As usual, there will be a light supper when we begin. If anyone wishes to provide the first meal, please let Pr. Crippen know. All are welcome to this study opportunity!

Semi-annual Congregation Meeting to be Held Sunday, April 28

The Vestry has announced the date of the April semi-annual congregation meeting to be Sunday, Apr. 28, after the second liturgy. Among the items on the agenda will be election of officers and directors, whose terms will begin on July 1. Any wishing to suggest names to the nominating committee for the positions of president, vice-president, secretary, and directors of congregational life, evangelism, or neighborhood ministries are encouraged to contact Adam Krueger, congregational president.

Also on the agenda are several constitutional and bylaw amendments presented to the congregation by the Vestry, attached to this Olive Branch as a separate document. The first page, the constitutional amendments, is a second hearing of amendments presented and approved at the October semi-annual meeting. Should these be approved again, with at least a 2/3 majority of those present and voting, they will be formally ratified. The second pages are bylaw amendments which only need the one hearing and vote at this meeting. Included in these amendments are bylaws establishing a business and finance committee, directed by the treasurer, and some corrective edits to several directors’ bylaws.

Found over the Easter weekend by the kitchen crew: one 14k gold earring in the shape of a bee, with a pearl. If you lost this earring, please contact the church office.

Practicing Faith Together: A Day for All God’s Families

Join members of TRUST congregations for a morning of family fun and faith on Saturday, April 13, from 9:00 a.m. until noon, at Lutheran Church of Christ the Redeemer (5440 Penn Avenue S., Minneapolis), with an optional lunch and service activity to follow. TRUST is pleased to welcome Marilyn Sharpe as the speaker for this event. You may recognize Marilyn as the writer of the monthly “Positive Parenting” column in the Metro Lutheran.

The workshop is open to all members and friends of TRUST congregations, especially families, however you describe yourselves as family, and knowing that all of us are part of God’s family. Members of TRUST churches are also invited to attend!

Theology on Tap

Good news Theology on Tap Enthusiasts - For our April 11 Theology on Tap, Jessinia Ruff has agreed to babysit young kids at Mount Olive! She'll watch your kids from 7:15-9:15 p.m. so you can come join our community discussion. Please contact Vicar Neal Cannon (vicar@mountolivechurch.org) ahead of time if you would like to use Jessinia as a baby-sitter that night so we know how many kids to expect. Cost for the night is $10 for 1 kid, $15 for two, and $20 for three or more.

Theology on Tap is a group at Mount Olive that meets once a month at local bars/restaurants to enjoy a good beverage and dialogue about faith and life (no preparation or book reading required, only your personal knowledge and insight). Contact Vicar Neal Cannon (vicar@mountolivechurch.org, 612-827-5919 x12) if you would like to join us or have questions about Theology on Tap!

On Friday night April 19, Peter Crippen and Eric Manuel and their mothers, along with members of Trust Youth group and more than 400 other teens from thirty Twin Cities congregations, have committed to spend the night in a church parking lot near downtown Minneapolis to learn about youth homelessness. Together they will learn what life is like for teens on the street.

•How do homeless teens make it from day to day?
•What resources are available to them?
•What can be done to help those who have no place to call home?

For that evening, they will stand in a soup line for dinner and spend the night sleeping outside in cardboard boxes.

They are doing this not only to increase awareness of youth homelessness, but also to raise money to help in efforts to end the problem. Participants been asked to raise enough funds to provide one week’s worth of safe and supportive services for a homeless youth. That’s $140.00 for seven days!

If you are able to help us meet that goal, please see Peter or Eric on Sunday morning, or drop off a check in the church office, payable to Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative, with "Night on the Street" in the memo line. All donations to A Night on the Street will go to Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative, a faith-based nonprofit housing organization. The event has corporate sponsors, so every dollar we raise will go directly to serving the youth!

Dining Out For Life

Thursday, April 25 is the 19th annual Dining Out for Life Event, a fundraiser for The Aliveness Project, a community center for individuals and their families living with HIV/AIDS. Funds raised through this annual event directly support their services and programs.

Dining out at participating restaurants is a great way to help with this worthy project, but this year they are also in need of over 500 Volunteer Ambassadors to serve at the participating restaurants. If you are interested in helping in this way, call the Aliveness Project at 612-822-7946, or visit them on the web at www.aliveness.org.

I’ve always appreciated the quote attributed to Edmund Burke, a British statesman generally viewed as the philosophical founder of modern political conservatism. He said, "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." While often used as a warning, I like to think possible interpretation allows for good as well—some things might be worth doing again, or expanding upon what was once done.

This Sunday we will have an opportunity to recall together some of Mount Olive’s history as one tool for building a vision and direction for our future. Following a light luncheon, we will collect remembrances of what was going on at Mount Olive and in our neighborhood around the time you became a part of this faith community. As stories of each decade are shared, our collective memory of this Church and her ministry will grow and a better understanding of who and why we are will emerge.

The prayer of the Vision Leadership Team is that this will be an opportunity to capture individual and shared perspectives of what shaped our history and makes us the unique and wonderful community we are today. Those who joined in the 90s may be surprised and hopefully enlightened by the things people recall from the 50s and so forth. Undoubtedly we will gain new or renewed insight into some of our traditions and customs along the way. These conversations and reflections provide the context for what we do today and will guide the choices we make for tomorrow.

So think about when you became a member of the Mount Olive family (or at least your earliest recollections) and join us this Sunday to share them. This will be the first of three such congregational vision events designed to gather information, perspective, and wisdom from you, our members, and provide focus and direction for our future. On May 5 we will host the second Congregational Vision Event to consider our core values. The last Congregational Vision Event will be on June 2 to consider what we do well, what we could do better, and maybe some things we haven’t even considered yet. Mark your calendar now to be a part of each of these ‘first Sunday of the month’ conversations.

Adam Krueger
Vision Leadership Team

PS: Have you volunteered yet to be a Community Observer or Community Leader Interviewer? These important and fun additional vision activities are designed to provide useful information about our neighborhood that will also be helpful in determining future direction and ministry. Signup sheets and additional information on these two opportunities and what each involves are available on the shelf outside the Church Office window. Training for both activities will be provided on April 14.

TRUST News
Here are some upcoming events sponsored by TRUST:

•Saturday, April 13, 7 pm, St. John Lutheran Church – The Caritas vocal ensemble will present a concert. Tickets are $15 ($10 for seniors), and a reception follows the concert.
•Saturday, May 11, 8 am-Noon, Bethlehem Lutheran Church – Annual Plant Sale. Order forms will be available so that you can select the perfect plants for your garden.
•Saturday, June 8, Lake Harriet – a walk to support the Parish Nurse Program. All walkers welcome!
•Did you know that TRUST has staff who conduct estate sales? The Trusty Salers conduct sales on weekends.

For information about these and all TRUST-sponsored activities, pick up a “Communicator” at church.